18. Killian
Chapter 18
Killian
C ullen pushed Willa’s sister, Lily, ahead of him as we escorted her to Logan’s office.
The real Lily.
Fucking finally.
Her capture was incredibly anticlimactic. The team stormed her boat and infiltrated the living space to find her lounging on the couch, drinking wine and making plane reservations. We’d gotten here just in time. She would have been gone by tomorrow.
There was a certain gratification at the stupefied shock on her face when she looked and found herself surrounded by five huge men, guns drawn. Her stunned expression collapsed into one of resentful resignation and she didn’t put up a fight when we tied her up and dragged her to the car.
We had the other team bring her back to the club. I was too worried about her opening her mouth and Cullen punching her the fuck out if she was with us. The minute we stormed the boat, violent aggression emanated off of him like tremors after an earthquake. I could tell it was taking all of his self-discipline not to give in and kill her.
As I stared at her petite frame, noting the ways that she and Willa did look eerily similar. She had Willa’s blonde hair and blue eyes and pale skin. They shared the same body type, though Lily’s tits looked fake as hell. The likeness was strong enough that I felt slightly vindicated for accidentally kidnapping Willa. Especially in her current outfit of leggings and an oversized men’s button-down shirt. She looked just like Willa.
At first glance.
When I got a moment to study Lily more closely, I quickly spotted all the ways they were not the same. Lily’s eyes were a similar shape, but the expression inside of them was vastly different. They were harsh and ice cold, almost deadened. You could also see her age on her, with some fine lines around her eyes, though she would still be considered youthful by most people’s standards.
The most notable difference between them was their personality and demeanor. You may confuse them in pictures, but there was no way you could possibly mistake them for each other in person. Lily was hard and haughty, while Willa was soft and sweet and real.
When we contacted Ian after Lily’s capture, he told me that Willa had been in the office with him all night, so I told him to clear her out. That was the last fucking thing I needed to deal with—Lily, Cullen, and Willa.
“Sit the fuck down,” Cullen barked at Lily.
Lily's blonde brow raised slightly, but she languidly settled herself in the folding chair Ian had placed in the middle of the room, her hands still zip tied. She stared up at Cullen with Willa’s sky-blue eyes, but they were empty, lifeless. “I’m sitting,” she mocked.
Cullen gave her a cold smile. “You think this is fucking joke? Do you have any idea the kind of shit you’re in?”
Lily shrugged one thin shoulder apathetically which had Cullen practically breathing fire.
Cullen gripped her hair and jerked her head back. “Who the fuck were you working with? Who killed Mac?”
Lily gave a chilling laugh as though she wasn’t being manhandled. “Why would I tell you that? If I tell you, you kill me. Hardly motivation to confess.”
Cullen’s grip tightened and I could tell it hurt her, but she kept smiling. Fuck, she was creepy. “I’ll kill you if you don’t tell me. Except it will be a lot more fucking painful.”
Her eyes scanned his features and she let out a little snort. “I don’t think you will, Mr. Hathaway.”
Cullen’s eyes squinted at the use of his last name, but it made sense. If she’d been with Mac, of course she’d know who we were.
“Oh, why’s that?”
“You’re too desperate. You need to know who killed your precious nerd friend. You won’t kill me until you have the information you want.”
She was right. That was usually where the torture came in.
I looked at Cullen and he was practically glowing with glee at the idea of tormenting this woman. “You sure you want to deal with what happens when a target resists giving up information, sweetheart?”
“Oh, am I your sweetheart?” she asked, sliding her foot along Cullen’s calf. “I can think of something else we can do together. Something infinitely more enjoyable than whatever ghoulish thoughts that are going through your mind,” Lily purred, licking her lips and thrusting her tits out. Her previously apathetic expression was suddenly coy, alluring, carnal. Her rigid posture softened as she attempted to use her sensuality to improve her situation. She practically exuded sex and pheromones. Chills ran down my spine at the swiftness of that transformation. Again, it was utterly disturbing.
Cullen laughed, a harsh, joyless sound. “Bitch, you got to be out of your fucking mind if you think I’m going to stick my dick in you.”
The fa?ade dropped and her expression reverted to her previous expression of icy disdain. “Suit yourself. Men have paid millions for this pussy.”
“Men have paid with their life, you fucking cunt,” Cullen roared.
Lily remained unaffected. Not once did I see a flicker of guilt, regret, remorse or any other emotion that might indicate she had some type of conscience. Not even fear.
“You set your sister up, didn’t you?” The chastised myself for the unplanned question, but had been sitting at the forefront of my mind since we’d captured her. I shouldn’t be bringing Willa into this. This was about Mac. When I looked at Cullen, his irritated expression echoed my thoughts.
Lily trained her lifeless eyes on me and shrugged. “Willa? She’s a nobody. I needed a way out and I thought she’d be useful. Figures, she’d fuck it up.”
“We could have killed her thinking it was you!” I bellowed. I needed to get a fucking grip, but the rage pulsing through my body was hard to contain. This selfish bitch had put Willa’s life at risk and she didn’t give a fuck.
“So? That was the point of using her.”
I stared down at this cold-hearted piece of human garbage and wanted to fucking strangle her. How the fuck was my soft, sexy Willa related to this fucking psychopath?
Cullen looked over at me, his eyebrows raised. I knew what that meant. You fucking done?
“Take her,” I barked at him, interested to see what he might end up doing to her. I needed to get the fuck out of here. I’d known she was bad, but Christ. How had Willa grown up with her, lived with her? This was Willa’s only living family member and she was a certifiable nightmare.
“Gladly,” he said, grabbing her arm to escort her to another room across the hall, more suitable for long term interrogations. In fact, it was the room I was supposed to have taken Willa to after kidnapping her but couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was like her innocence spoke to me from the first minute I saw her.
Just thinking of her sweet, beautiful face made me ache to see her. I knew we had a long fucking night ahead of us. Breaking Lily down was going to be rough. She was missing a lot of the weaknesses that were easiest to exploit in interrogations. She was smart, calculating, uncaring and not easily manipulated. Hopefully, she had a low threshold for pain.
Cullen escorted her to the room and shackled her to the chair that sat in the middle the room, before leaving and locking the door. It was essentially a bare cell. She wouldn’t be getting out.
“You going back in?” I asked.
Cullen leaned against the wall and rubbed his face. His face was lined with fatigue, his eyes red and unfocused. He looked fucking exhausted. “Fuck, it’s like I used all my adrenaline before getting her. Now that we have her, I’m ready to goddamn drop. I’m dying to go at her, but, goddamn, I haven’t slept for days.”
I could see he was conflicted between taking care of his body and satisfying his need to torment Lily on Mac’s behalf.
“Put her on ice for a few hours and get some fucking sleep. The wait will only work to our advantage. She’ll be freaking out by the time you get to her. We’ve done this a million times to prime the pump.”
Cullen nodded. “Yeah, good idea. Let’s catch a few hours and come back to her. That bitch deserves to sit and suffer. She’s a real fucking piece of work.”
I shook my head. “Fucking psycho. I can’t believe she and Willa are related.”
“Makes you wonder what we don’t know about Willa,” Cullen sneered. Asshole.
I glowered. “Fuck off. Jesus Christ, you’re hardheaded. Go get some fucking sleep. You fucking need it.”
“We’re back in four hours.”
“Fine.” I left and went in search of Willa. My urgency to see her was unsettling. There was something strangely grounding about seeing her again, but I also felt like I had been zapped with a live wire. The thought of her presence triggered so many contradicting emotions—serenity and exhilaration, contentment and intoxication.
These fanciful thoughts brought me up short. I needed to remind myself, when this thing with Lily was over, more than likely so was my relationship with Willa.